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CarGurus first earnings call as public company reveals 56% revenue spike

Photo credit: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com.

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 09:36 AM

By Sarah RubenoffAuSM Correspondent

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -

After holding its IPOin October, CarGurus hosted its first earnings call as a public company on Tuesday. And results from the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, didn’t disappoint.

Total revenue for the online vehicle marketplace came in at $83.0 million, which represents growth of 56 percent year-over-year.

“We are very pleased with our third-quarter results, which are highlighted by robust top line growth and ongoing profitability,” Langley Steinert, founder and chief executive officer of CarGurus, said.

“Our strategy of building the world’s most trusted and transparent automotive marketplace is delivering a disruptive value proposition to consumers,” he said.

Steinert went on to call the recent initial public offering — which generated net proceeds to the company of approximately $43.0 million — an “important milestone” for the business.

As for what contributed to the impressive revenue growth in Q3, the company shared during the call that marketplace subscription revenue was at $73.9 million. This is a jump of 59 percent when compared to the same quarter last year. Advertising and other revenue came in at $9.1 million, which also increased considerably — 36 percent — compared to $6.7 million in Q3 of last year.

As for how these numbers break down by dealers — you guessed it, those numbers were up considerably, as well. Total paying dealers on the site came in at 26,553 at the close of the third quarter—up 37 percent from a group of 19,403 in Q3 2016.

And revenue from these dealers was up by double-digits, as well. Average annual revenue per dealer in the U.S. came in at $11,526, an increase of 16 percent compared to $9,939 in the third quarter of 2016.

It seems more consumers are aware of the site, as well, since the U.S. average number of monthly unique users on CarGurus.com of 26.0 million in Q3 represents an increase of 24 percent year-over-year.

It has been a big year for players in the online automotive space going public. Cars.com, Carvana and now CarGurus have each rolled IPOs in 2017.

And with CarGurus public, at least four of the major players in its space are now publicly traded (TrueCar, AutoWeb [formerly Autobytel], Cars.com and CarGurus).